Designer about the models of upholstered furniture, created for the Italian company MOROSO.

Passing the gallery

Interview prepared: Oksana Kashenko

A photo: Kirill Ovchinnikov

Magazine: N4 (82) 2004

Among the producers of upholstered furniture, the Italian company MOROSO stands out in that each model produced by the factory becomes a bestseller. In the halls and lobby of airports, hotels and banks, in hotel rooms and Atlantic liners, in the homes of showbiz stars and apartments of oil magnates ... MOROSO's sofas stand modestly so-so. Several times in their lives each sat on them. Sitting on these sofas in the Italian showroom of the company, we "interrogated" the famous designer Patricia Urquiola with passion for models created by her for MOROSOSALON: You do not make universal furniture, each thing has its own character, do I understand correctly? - Yes, each object is seductive, causes curiosity, attracts attention. When you want to do an elegant thing, you need to see in advance its style, its image. You need to be very careful and invest a lot in creating things so that each object is different. People believe in me and my work, and it is important for me how they will perceive and accept what I have created.S: When I look at your things, I have a feeling that it is impossible to sit on them ugly ... Do you come up with a story for each model?  - I do not care how the object made by me will be used. For me it is important that this object attracts a person to such an extent that he comes up, tries to sit or lie on it and that from this "communication" there is even more interest in the model. When I was creating Lowland, I thought about the system of sofas, I imagined large such stones suitable for sitting. In order to form a sofa of several such "stones" -seenings, I thought up to connect them with the rear walls. It gives both independence of elements, and durability. Then I came up with low wide armrests that greatly complement this landscape. In the end, the sofa turned out recognizable and different from others. I am very pleased that he deserved recognition. The sofa Malmö has its own history, derived from the word "bridge". This sofa - stamped thing from rubber. His bottom is empty inside, and on top it is concave. It is like a bridge - in appearance and design. But this, of course, is not important. It is amazingly comfortable. One of the most favorite works is the Fjord chair. Its outlines resemble mountains, fjords, which cut the whole of Scandinavia. The fjords are low mountains with frequent and deep crevices. I wanted to convey this metaphor. It turned out very sculptural and very comfortable chair. But if you sit in it, as in a regular chair, with a straight back, it will be uncomfortable. For comfort, it is imperative to find an asymmetrical posture - lean on the back, located on the side! The chair has only one armrest. This determines the manner of use, new, more relaxing and at the same time attractive. Looking at this chair, you realize that comfort is not only physical comfort. It is also emotional comfort. In the evening, you use the sofa for its intended purpose, but when you just look at it in the morning ... It's at the level of sensations. I do not consider myself to be functionalists. At the heart of Step’s sofa idea was the desire to make a completely horizontal object. I imagined a mountain of pillows, which I slightly moved, put on each other a ladder. I want to lie down and lie on this sofa. Once I was asked to make a chair for the Lowland system. To reduce the idea and concept of Lowland seemed to me impossible. So I said: "Let's take the armrest, increase it, and it will become the back of this chair." So the armrest was low, but very comfortable support for the back. In itself, the chair is very wide and large, plus there was an unusual back, on which it is so nice not only to lean, but also to sit down. I saw in a hotel, in a bar, how four people sat like that. S: Do you imagine the age of people who will sit on your couches every time? - I saw people who buy my furniture. These are people who love modern design, the audience is unconventional, original in their passions. But age is very different. S: What would you advise people who for the first time will consciously spend large amounts of money on upholstered furniture? What to think about? About the material, about design, about convenience, about durability? - It depends ... One lives in a house where all things are simple, of a certain category, normal. The other lives artistically, in a big way. Just like in clothes. You can wear jeans, you can - dress with crinoline. Personally, I will forever remain a Spaniard, feeling Latin culture, where all things have their own history, and these stories are so mixed ...